Charles Bradlaugh, (born September 26, 1833, London, England—died January 30, 1891, London) British radical and atheist, a freethinker in the tradition of Voltaire and Thomas Paine, prominent throughout most of the second half of the 19th century for his championship of individual liberties.

Bradlaugh, etching by W. Strang

Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.

Son of a poor legal clerk, Bradlaugh served in the British army (1850–53), followed his father’s occupation for a time, and then became an antireligious lecturer under the name of Iconoclast. In 1860 he took over the editorship of the periodical National Reformer, which was prosecuted (1868–69) for allegedblasphemy and sedition. From 1874 to about 1885 he was closely associated with Annie Besant, an advocate of numerous radical causes. In 1876 the Bristol publisher of Fruits of Philosophy, a birth-control pamphlet by Charles Knowlton, a physician in the United States, was given a light sentence for selling an indecent work. To vindicate their ideas of freedom, Bradlaugh and Besant republished the book in London in 1877 and circulated it aggressively, incurring much more severe penalties. Their indictments were nullified on a technical point, however.

In 1880 Bradlaugh, campaigning as a radical, was elected to the House of Commons. For more than five years, however, he was denied his seat because he asked to be allowed to affirm rather than to take the religious oath of Parliament. During that period he was reelected three times and later offered to take the oath but was forbidden to do so until finally, in January 1886, permission was granted and he was seated. By that time public opinion had swung in his favour, and Bradlaugh himself, who opposed Socialism, appeared increasingly conservative.

Learn More in these related articles:

...regarding the links between unrestrained fertility and poverty, they rejected his advocacy of delayed marriage and his opposition to birth control. Moreover, leading neo-Malthusians such as Charles Bradlaugh and Annie Besant could hardly be described as reactionary defenders of the established church and social order. To the contrary, they were political and religious radicals who saw...

Reared in an orphanage, Thomson entered the Royal Military Academy, Chelsea, became a regimental schoolmaster, and in 1851 was sent to Ireland. There he met the freethinker and radical Charles Bradlaugh, who was to be of great importance to his literary career.

November 21, 1694 Paris, France May 30, 1778 Paris one of the greatest of all French writers. Although only a few of his works are still read, he continues to be held in worldwide repute as a courageous crusader against tyranny, bigotry, and cruelty. Through its critical capacity, wit, and satire,...